[Volume XXVII
THE CHICAGO BANKER
10
The Wisconsin National Bank
OF MILWAUKEE
CAPITAL - $2,000,000	- ־
SURPLUS 1,000,000 ־
OFFICERS
L.J. PETIT, President	HERMAN F. WOLF, Cashier
FRED'K KASTEN, Vice-President	L. G. BOURNIQUE, Asst. Cashier
CHAS. E. ARNOLD, 2nd Vice-President	W. L. CHENEY, Asst. Cashier
WALTER KASTEN, Asst. Cashier
DIRECTORS
L.J. Petit	Frederick Kasten	R. W. Houghton	Oliver C. Fuller
Herman W. Falk	Geo. D. Van Dyke	Gustave Pabst	Charles Schriber
Isaac D. Adler	H. M. Thompson	Patrick Cudahy
Wisconsin Trust Company
MILWAUKEE
CAPITAL	$500,000	־
SURPLUS 100,000 ־
OFFICERS
OLIVER C. FULLER, President	GARDNER P.STICKNEY, Vice-President
FRED. C. BEST, Secretary	R. L. SMITH, Assistant Secretary
DIRECTORS
L.J. Petit, Chairman Frederick Kasten R.W. Houghton Oliver C. Fuller Herman W. Falk	Charles Schriber Gustave Pabst	Gardner P. Stickney
Isaac D. Adler	H. M. Thompson Patrick Cudahy
WISCONSIN
NEWS LETTER
By Mortimer I. Stevens
MILWAUKEE
Alilwaukee bond and trust company reports that their sales have been far and away ahead of the sales made during the same period a year ago and that they are having no difficulty to place their holdings.
Meeting Well Attended
The first regular meeting of the Milwaukee chapter of the American Institute of Banking was held Friday evening, October 8th, in Merchants׳’ and Manufacturers’ hall and was well attended. James I. Ennis, a Chicago attorney and recognized authority on negotiable paper, was the speaker for the evening taking for his subject, “Bank Checks and Savings Checks.” Mr. Ennis is a fluent talker and as on previous occasions his remarks were listened to with interest and profit to his audience. The next meeting of the chapter will be held October 22d, at which meeting Dr. Paul S. Reinsch, of the University of Wisconsin, will lecture on “South American Banking and Finance.”
Increase Rate of Interest
The Waukesha National and the National Exchange Bank of Waukesha are showing their confidence in the general improvement of business conditions by increasing their rate of inter-terest paid on deposits from 2 per cent to 3 per cent.
Failure Causes Illness
John E. Thomas, former president of the Dairymen’s National of Sheboygan Falls, which was recently reorganized under a new management, has taken rooms at the St. Nicholas hos-
the state during the past week and the reports are far more optimistic than they have been for some time in the past. Wisconsin banks have always been large buyers of bonds and other gilt edge securities and while a large amount of available cash has been necessary to take care of the crops it is reported from many quarters that the country banker has not converted as large a percentage of his holdings into cash this year as in former years.
The tobacco crop has been good this year and coupled with a good grain crop and active dairy markets money will be plentiful this fall and the deposits it is believed will run heavier than the average. As a result of the favorable outlook the small country banker is already casting about for investment, limited at present, but yet several weeks ahead of last year. One
The Wisconsin state legislative committee upon the question of a bill for the guaranty of bank deposits has returned from the scene of its investigations in Oklahoma and while it will be some time before they will make their official statement it is pretty generally understood that the majority of the committee, at least, are none too well impressed with what they have seen of the working of the system.
By a strange coincidence the stage was well set when they arrived in Oklahoma for the failure of the Columbia Bank and Trust Company, the biggest bank in the state occurred on the day of their arrival, and the committee was thus enabled to see all the artillery of the system unlimbered and brought into action.
According to one member of the committee, who does not wish to talk for publication, the system is a failure. He says that the defunct bank carried deposits of more than $3,000,000 and that a large part of the guaranty fund was on deposit in this bank. One of the first steps taken, he says, was to immediately levy a special assessment upon other banks in the state and a general lament was heard from those assessed. In other words, the system appeared to be all right upon paper, and in justice must be said to have worked satisfactory for the depositors, but so far as the banks are concerned, the guaranty system has lost many of its former staunch supporters.
Wisconsin Bond Market
Bond salesmen for Milwaukee houses have been returning from various points throughout